TotalBiscuit's Legacy And The Collateral Damage of GamerGate

John "TotalBiscuit" Bain sharing tips on how to live with Stage-4 cancer on an H3H3 podcast, October 2017. Photo credit: YouTubeH3H3, YouTube

The late YouTube Legend known as John "TotalBiscuit" Bain would have turned 34 on Sunday had he not lost his struggle to bowel cancer about a month ago. Instead of “Happy Birthdays” and tributes to his decade-plus career in the video game industry, however, his name is currently being evoked with the firing of two game developers and associated mob harassment. His critics call it “fitting” that this is Bain’s legacy… but many of his fans, some of whom have grown up with him, are wondering why some internet drama from 2014 is still relevant enough in 2018 to damage Bain’s brand forever. Even posthumously, TotalBiscuit is causing controversy.

To progressives and what constitutes as “mainstream internet,” Bain was the man who legitimized GamerGate, the 2014 harassment-campaign-turned-consumer-revolt that went on to inspire conservatives. Esports consultant and journalist Rod “slasher” Breslau, a close friend, disputed that characterization of Bain in a phone interview. Breslau is wrong (more on that later). As wrong as Breslau is, so are the critics maligning TotalBiscuit as a white supremacist and abuser whose death should be celebrated immediately in a space his widow can see. The online telephone game that slandered the female targets of Gamergate worked both ways, including here for Bain. (As for the fans who searched for these heartless post-death announcement comments and screencapped/ shared them widely, again, where his wife saw? They've also lost any moral high ground, and depending on your thoughts on proper twitter etiquette, might even be worse than the original offenders. Moving on...)

To competitive gamers, teens and YouTubers, TotalBiscuit was a consumer advocate and popular commentator who legitimized esports and contributed significantly to the growth of both YouTube and Twitch TV. He was an “ethics in video games” crusader on YouTube from at least 2011 onward, years before Gamergate, and a prominent Starcraft 2 commentator by 2010. As for TotalBiscuit’s mega-personality and ubiquitous voice, he honed that in 2004 on his various World of Warcraft Radio shows that ran until 2010 when he moved to YouTube and Twitch, then called Justin.tv. (Bain even proposed to his wife on his radio show!)

“He was one of the very first Starcraft 2 casters in the world,” said Breslau in a phone interview. Breslau first met Bain at a Starcraft 2 major league gaming event in 2009 and said those memories of Bain at tournaments are some of his favorites. Totalbiscuit loved Starcraft 2 so much, his wife Genna Bain put his ashes in the GSTL Championship trophy their team Axiom won at a competitive tournament in South Korea in 2014. “Starcraft 2 was the game that made Twitch a thing, made esports kind of blow up,” explained Breslau and Bain was there from the beginning, for both digital phenomena. Twitch did not respond to a request for comment but a statement posted to Twitter immediately after his death reads:

“John Bain’s opinionated game critiques and sense of humor led to him becoming one of the most prominent voices in the gaming industry. The emote bearing his face represents the indelible mark that he has left on Twitch. Thank you for everything, TotalBiscuit.”

Twitch has three emoticons about him actually -- both a Top Hat and his face as “lul” and “omegalul.” A good explainer of the emoticon here.

Besides being a first in a now multi-million-dollar industry, Bain has been credited with innovating videogame-related formats on YouTube, including commentary and critique. He could be described as the Anita Sarkeesian of the right in the current culture wars, always aggressive with his opinions but a bit thin-skinned to criticism himself. (He threatened to quit social media, Twitter and reddit a few times, for starters.) Breslau also disputed this characterization of Bain as a kind of the Anita of the right, saying Bain “didn’t like the culture on the right, he didn’t like the culture of the left and he felt both sides were kind of ridiculous…[and] contributing to the same problem.”

For someone so savvy at digital media preceding the incident, Bain’s involvement with GamerGate in 2014 can only be explained as a lapse in judgment. Up until that point he hadn’t yet been duped by any fake news campaigns perpetuated by organized online trolls. (A good break-down of the fake news spread by Bain, written in 2014, can be read here, while general Gamergate fake news debunkery is here.) His media literacy was higher than most... but in the end, it was not enough to keep Bain from becoming the perfect useful idiot in a troll agenda. Any troll aims to bring in a handful of well-meaning patsies for their fake cause. Bain brought in thousands.

What pulled Bain into the online controversy was an issue he had covered before, related to false copyright strikes issued by YouTube bullies and music corporations. Breslau maintained Bain didn’t care about nor had any interest in any female developer’s sexual history (what sparked the original mob). Claims that Bain shared a slut-shaming video referencing “Five Guys Burgers & Fries” or that Bain made his career off harassing women are both grossly erroneous. Bain had already been talking about ethics in the video game industry for years and had either led or supported online campaigns that impacted the video game industry for the better (like increased transparency, for starters). He was, for all intents and purposes, an expert on the “ethics in video games” topic and ultimately why Breslau is wrong. It was because of his area of expertise that when Bain entered the conversation he immediately legitimized the “ethics in video game journalism” narrative.

Unfortunately for Bain, his star power, white male privilege and massive fan base of more than a million could never change the narrative to the issue he wanted to discuss. Further, this mistake would eternally brand him as the face of a troll movement whose main claim to fame was making headlines for privacy breaches, hacking and various online crimes including harassing women out of their homes and threats of gun violence. “No one wants that,” said Breslau, of harassment being attached to their brand. “He would never promote the actual harassment of people he disagreed with... there’s no way John thinks that is good... he never condoned when his fans did that to people” he added. Efforts to extricate himself from Gamergate from 2015 on were unsuccessful. (Had they been, this article wouldn’t exist.)

Before we get further into Gamergate, a handful of Bain’s greatest hits that the bulk of the video game community and youth of YouTube remember him for:

Bain’s 2006 videos on gold farmers and bots in World of Warcraft shed a spotlight on the shady practice and the budding underground economy. It also ruffled enough feathers to get him temporarily banned by Blizzard EU, which increased his credibility, ironically.

When professional UK gamer Ben “Braindeadly” Vacas got into a very public dispute in 2012 with Machinima, the top video gaming multi-channel network (MCN) on YouTube then, over the unfair contract they signed him to, Totalbiscuit came to his aid. In a statement of that incident, Vacas wrote (condensed, edited):

“I remember watching him talk with Athene on skype while Athene was streaming and ultimately this along with the support of the general community led me to having the help of Maker Studios lawyers to help move the case…and I ended up being released from Machinima.”

Vacas, appreciative of Bain's assistance, believes the public outcry “sent a big message to all of the YouTube networks out there that transparency and good business is important.”

2012 also saw the Mass Effect 3 DLC online controversy, of which Totalbiscuit was a leader in. In that controversy, Bioware released a game many perceived to be unfinished unless consumers also purchased additional downloadable content. That DLC contained essential plot and story points to the main Mass Effect 3 storyline. Worse, a hack of the game disc revealed the “separate” DLC content was actually in the original game and accessible for free that way.

The Shadow of Mordor controversy of 2014 had Totalbiscuit publicizing another potentially unethical business practice in the gaming industry, this time of the contracts YouTubers had to sign in order to get copies of the game to review as well as creators not disclosing sponsored content as an ad.

In 2017, he caused controversy when he stuck up for a journalist from Kotaku, an outlet Bain vocally hated, and when a writer was asked a transphobic troll-question at a convention. The convention incident ultimately lost him subscribers as it was seen as a way to atone for some dumb comments he made years prior, like misgendering “on accident” and other statements the LGBTQ community called transphobic. Bain would never do this “purposefully,” said Breslau, and he was always willing to “admit if he said things that were fucked up.” The majority of the LGBTQ gamer community on Twitter feels otherwise.

Which brings us back to Gamergate, the summer of 2014. Besides the spreading of fake news even after acknowledging organized troll interference, Bain’s biggest "crimes" -- if they can even be called that -- involve being a critic, expressing odious, obnoxious and controversial opinions and tweeting jokes in bad taste including about the death of feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian. (Anyone trying to frame that joke tweet as otherwise best have never tweeted a #KillAllMen or “male tears” joke… two liberal memes Gamergaters and trollish conservatives like to purposefully take out of context to demonize feminists.) A doxxer, swatter, hacker, troll, bigot or serial harasser he was not. Breslau is also adamant that he, and Bain, believed Sarkeesian's threats as real, not standing by Bain's uninformed comments about the matter made in 2014.

Sarkeesian was mentioned by Bain quite a few times over the years and not just because dunking on feminists is popular and an easy way to get Internet points. Part of why Bain criticized Sarkeesian often had to do with her being viewed as somewhat of an equal, or a rival. Sarkeesian was perceived to be the biggest name on the issue -- there are no other feminist video gamers anywhere near her star power and if you wanted to talk about the feminist perspective on video games, there really wasn't any one else to refer to.

Another reason had to do with Sarkeesian never really becoming a part of the YouTube or gaming community at large -- she never built a fan base on YouTube, never did any collaborations with other gamers (even allies!), and didn’t allow comments, for starters. (The obvious answer for this is she was harassed viciously in 2012, remember, and never seemed to fully recover or trust online gamers thereafter. Vocal male YouTubers champing certainly didn't help either.) Even response videos or comments debunking some of the most popular content about her on the platform would have earned her points with this crowd. She was on YouTube, but not really part of it. Gaming-centric creator Boogie 2988 discusses some of Sarkeesian's troubles, like audience building, further here.

“She was a poor representative [of YouTube feminists] in the way that she went about creating her content and cultivating the discussion,” said Breslau. He acknowledged “her ideas are correct,” especially when it comes to “a lot of the themes they have in these games, the general entertainment tropes.” This was a topic of conversation and source of frustration Breslau said he often discussed with Bain. Indeed, it is common knowledge among feminists that the concepts Sarkeesian shared in her Tropes Vs Videogame series are basic Feminism 101 that really shouldn’t be riling anyone up. “Obviously she didn’t deserve the hate she got” Breslau added quickly. “No one did.”

On top of that, Sarkeesian seemed especially adept at getting press coverage, which worked against her during the height of Gamergate. “For a lot of people in the gaming audience -- we can see with Gamergate to a larger extent -- a lot of people distrust the media in general,” said Breslau. This mistrust has left gamers “feeling like they are able to trust YouTubers and streamers much more even though technically a lot of them have just as much or more conflict than traditional journalists.” Breslau used to work as a video game journalist himself and shared how back in his day magazines would have to be careful with their video game criticism for fear of losing advertising from said video game publisher.

When the Gamergate conversation, especially in the media, stayed focused on people like Sarkeesian, it automatically turned gamers off “because no one trusted [her]” and she was seen as “not reliable” said Breslau. From the YouTube and gaming community’s perspective, she didn’t seem to care about them or want to engage with them. This level of distance and perceived snobbery made selling misinformation and joke ideas about how feminists want to ban all the video games as an actual fact all that much easier for political opportunists, sexists and the trollishly inclined.

Streamer and video essayist T1J broke down some of the fake news and “out of control” hate slung Sarkeesian’s way, and shared a related personal revelation, in a 4-minute video embedded below here.

It was only in recent years that Bain began to “gain more perspective” and consider the responsibility that came with his YouTube and Twitch fame, including whether he should and in what way, as a critic, criticize someone who is harassed often, in a public forum. “You do have a responsibility to make sure your audience doesn’t go do things that you don’t want to represent as your own brand -- I know Jon felt this way -- but there is a limit, you can’t control your fans,” said Breslau. “There is a certain point where you’re allowed to have strong opinions,” he continued. Bain never seemed to find that balance.

The reason Gamergate will always and forever be characterized as a sexist movement and not a genuine ethics in video game journalism crusade, despite long-standing shadiness in video game related media and Bain’s efforts, is precisely because the ethics issue flew under the radar for many years … until it involved a woman. Who happened to be a feminist… being accused of sexual misconduct by an angry ex, no less. It was the actions of the mob, engaging in a sexist agenda, that made headlines, not that a developer slept with someone -- that's not news. The hashtag #Gamergate was coined by a conservative actor reacting to the previously mentioned slut-shaming video -- changing its meaning to something after the fact is impossible. If the ethics issue had been raised in any other way, Bain wouldn't have been crowned the king of an infamous harassment campaign and committer of all the crimes associated with it.

While Gamergate faded away and lost relevancy except among progressive social media bubbles and white supremacists, TotalBiscuit as a brand separate from Gamergate continued to stay relevant among video gamers, both competitive and on Twitch and YouTube. Young adults grew up watching his content and while four years ago may seem like nothing to an adult, to a minor growing up, that’s a large chunk of their formidable years. Gamergate was a huge loss for feminists not just because of the harassment that drove away talent, it was also a failed PR front whose defeat continues to reverberate in the modern culture war.

Take this post on a prominent, college-student run publication where the young author mistakes the start of Gamergate to 5 years ago, not 4, as a prime exhibit. As evident by his tone, the writer views the Gamergate phenomenon as an inane online drama involving obscure (to him) figures, completely inappropriate and far removed from today to bring up as a reason to celebrate someone's death. When Gamergate was happening, this author was a pre-pubescent or young minor (unless he is writing as a senior in college making him at least 17 in 2014, however this is unlikely because he remembered the timeline incorrectly) and only hearing of Gamergate in the disseminated form of 9gag and iFunny memes or long-winded videos on YouTube. Compare those information avenues to most adults who read about Gamergate via tweets sent by indie game developers or political figures and articles in publications with paywalls. This confusion over the continued relevance of Gamergate is widespread among younger millennials and Generation Z.

So what is to become of TotalBiscuit’s legacy? E3 went by last month without a single mention of Bain’s passing. Breslau is hopeful the Game Awards will do something to honor Bain but if the post-E3 analysis is indicative of anything, that may be unlikely. While Gamergate went on to spawn and populate the alt-right and shape conservative language commonly used today, the women affected went on to support and publicize the #metoo movement and influence liberal messaging. There may be more gamers and young people who know who Totalbiscuit was than what Gamergate was all about, but the women of the #metoo movement have the legitimacy and moral high ground and will continue to make history. This is something Bain should have foreseen. Another hurdle for his legacy is the fact that much of gamer lore, including about Bain, is oral, social -- it is told through videos, live streams, podcasts, group skype calls, team chat over headsets and in-person at tournaments. The majority of his history, like most top gamers and personalities, is not written down in an easily accessible format. It is in stories friends tell each other.

Breslau wants Bain to be remembered for all the good he has done, as an innovator, industry titan, a consumer advocate, and not just as an entertainer and thoughtful online critic that elevated video games to the art form they deserve to be. But the vocal olds, especially of the progressive variety, can’t see Bain as anything other than the alleged leader of the biggest online harassment campaign they’ve ever witnessed, however hyperbolic and wrong that image of him may be. His best bet is if his wife works to repair Bain’s reputation but it is unclear if she is up to the challenge or even wants, or thinks, she needs to make amends. (Some of these critics are the same who mocked her husband's passing, after all, so any attempt with someone so publicly hateful is probably futile.)

One of the most important things to Bain, according to Breslau, was his reputation and that his audience trusted him, making it all the more tragic if Bain is remembered more for sharing fake news and inadvertently legitimizing a harassment campaign. Clearly Bain didn’t do enough to atone for his perceived Gamergate sins and if there is a lesson in all of this, it’s that one must make peace and settle any internet beef you have with feminists while you’re still living. History is written by the victors, after all.

Genna Bain, wife and CEO of all media related to Totalbiscuit, did not respond to requests for comment.

Edit: An earlier version erroneously stated Bain was a Starcraft 2 commentator in 2009.

I am a freelance technology and digital culture reporter who got her start covering student finances and local news back in 2008. Nowadays I cover web phenomenon, new media, digital revenue streams and business shifts. My work can be seen in Vice, the Christian Science Monit...